


Pair of Aces

by Imagining_in_the_Margins



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Asexual Character, Asexual Relationship, Asexual Spencer Reid, Asexuality, Asexuality Spectrum, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Fluff without Plot, Gender-Neutral Pronouns, Other, Romantic Fluff, Self-Insert, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-31
Updated: 2020-08-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:28:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26220403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Imagining_in_the_Margins/pseuds/Imagining_in_the_Margins
Relationships: Spencer Reid/You
Comments: 3
Kudos: 52





	Pair of Aces

Pride Month at the BAU was an interesting time of year. There’s a running joke among the LGBT community that television shows always have it wrong when they show the one “gay friend.” The truth is that when you found one of us, there would be ten others nearby.

For one day of the year, we showed everyone _just_ how true that rang. It was a tradition started by Penelope Garcia, a woman who’d since left the bureau, but her legacy remained. She’d left behind in her colorful cave a collection of Pride flag pins. And each year, we would add more whenever needed.

This year, I’d brought my own. It was, in a word, terrifying.

It was weird; purple was one of my favorite colors, so why did it become absolutely terrifying when worn with black, grey, and white so scary? I tried not to think about it too hard— after all, I was pretty sure some people wouldn’t even recognize it or think that it meant something else. All I had to do was wear it with confidence and remember that most people were too worried or insecure to ask what it meant.

I was wrong.

I should have known, really. If there was one thing Spencer Reid was known for, it was his knack for asking the _worst_ possible questions. So, when he approached me and asked, “Hey, can I ask you a question?” I knew that I was already doomed.

“S-Sure. What’s up?” I asked back, lacing my hands together so he might not see them shake.

“What does that flag mean?”

Terrifying.

“Oh.” I said in lieu of an answer. Really, I just sort of stared at the man, my heart feeling like it had decided to run a marathon without my legs. Of all the people to notice, it had to be Spencer. The others would have just looked it up on their lonesome. But Spencer and I were here, staring at each other in silence.

The longer it went on, the more nervous he got, which meant both of us grew uncomfortable and jittery in the not-at-all quiet landscape. We really should have been talking, but I didn’t know what to say. Thankfully, Spencer usually did, and so he was the one to break the silence between the two of us.

“Sorry if that’s offensive, I just haven’t seen it before.” He explained, scratching the back of his head, seemingly realizing for the first time in the conversation that he’d done it again. He’d made someone uncomfortable with his insatiable curiosity. I would have tried to explain it to him then, but he just talked so darned fast. “I also feel like I should tell you I hadn’t seen most of them before Garcia gave out the pins the first year and—

I didn’t want to hear it any longer, deciding to rip off the band-aid to see if the wound would bleed underneath. “I-It’s uh…” I interrupted loudly just to fall quiet again, “It represents the asexual spectrum.”

His eyes lit up, his mouth forming into an excited ‘O’ right before he shouted, “Oh! I know what that is!”

My eyes lit up next, followed by a wide grin covering my face. “Really?”

Spencer just nodded, and I couldn’t help but notice just how proud of himself he seemed for that. But maybe I was just reading too far into it; wanting to see something that wasn’t there. It wasn’t often that people seemed too pleased to hear that word. To explain my apparent anxiety, I shrugged. “I was expecting a fungus joke.”

“I can still tell you one if you want.”

With a careful side eye and a cautious smile, I spoke lowly and slowly, “Is it any good?” It was a very serious question, which I expected a very serious answer to. He was more than happy to play along.

“I think it’s hilarious, but I’m pretty sure you’ll disagree.” He cringed, but still through that charming, toothy grin.

“Okay?” I laughed along with him, “What is it?”

“You are quite like an asexual fungus, because everywhere you go you are always _budding_ up with someone.”

It was the way he leaned forward on his tip toes, his whole body rocking and his voice drawing out the word so that it sounded more like “buddying” that caused a gasp to rise from my chest.

“Stop! That’s the stupidest pun I’ve ever heard!” I screeched, covering my face with both hands to hide just how funny I found the objectively terrible joke. Somewhere in my head I asked myself when it stopped being scary.

“Most great comedians were unappreciated in their time.” Spencer lectured, shaking his head in displeasure at my apparent lack of appreciation. “Shakespeare had to beg people to come to his shows, you know.”

“I’d go to a Shakespeare play.” I announced, raising my finger between us to emphasize the point. I appreciated _good_ comedy, after all.

“Do you want to?”

The question caught me so off guard that the only word that I could think was the one tumbling from my lips. “What?”

“We should go sometime. They have them all the time at the theatre downtown.”

He made it sound so… normal. Normal and possible and preferable and… fun.

“Oh. Yeah, sure.” I don’t know how I expected him to hear it with how quietly I said it, but he did. I could tell he did because before he even answered, he shrugged his shoulders up to his ears, tucking his hands in his pockets and rocking back on his heels.

“Cool! I’ll let you know when the next one is.”

“Okay.” I said, happier after some of his excitement had traveled through the air and into me. “Sounds good.”

I saw something strange on his face, then. He looked at me like he wanted to say something but couldn’t decide whether he should. I almost wished he did. But after a few more seconds of mixed stares and avoidance, Spencer nodded, seemingly coming to a conclusion in his head before turning on his heel. One more quick wave and he was off.

Oh well. Maybe I’d ask him next year.

—

The rest of the day passed pretty much the same as any other day, save the colorful pins on my coworkers. No one else asked me what mine meant, although JJ and Emily made a point to tell me the colors suited me. It was their way of saying they were proud of me. My mind was still stuck on Spencer, though, and the thing he never got to say.

I thought I might never know, but before the day was over, he came crashing over to my desk in typical Spencer fashion. “Hey! You’ll never guess! They actually have a showing of Macbeth this weekend!” He practically yelled.

He was right that I wouldn’t have guessed. In fact, I couldn’t do much of anything in that moment but stare at the tiny pin that glinted on Spencer’s lapel. It wasn’t the usual pink, purple and blue that he wore every year— there was another one. One that looked… just like mine.

“… Why are you wearing that?” 

Now I was the one asking rude questions, and Spencer was the one with a semi-defeated and mostly confused, “Oh.” He thought about it for a minute, and then with a shaky voice, trying to feign confidence, explained, “I didn’t realize before that there was a flag for it.”

Like before, I just kept staring, hoping that someone would find a way to word my thoughts to make them make sense.

Spencer cleared his throat, pointing up at himself with hands that also shook just like. mine. “I’m wearing it for me.” He paused, then continued. “And a little for you, too.”

I owed him a response, to provide him the same comfort that he had provided for me earlier with his terrible humor, but my mind was torn in so many different directions. My heart was still trying to catch up. Thankfully, patience was one of the many things Spencer Reid happened to be known for. Patience and talking way, way too much. That was whom I needed in that moment, and that was whom I got.

“I figured if we were going to go to the show together… you might want to know.” He explained, his smile not as excited as before, but definitely softer and dare I say it, happier. He ran a hand through his hair, his cheeks gathering a pink dusting before he gestured to the elevator. “I have to go, but I’ll call you about the show if you’re still interested.”

“I am.” I said, not at all nervous that time.

I wondered to myself when it had stopped being scary.

“Alright… Talk to you soon, then!” He answered with the enthused smile that I’d missed, his hand coming up in another giddy wave.

Before he could leave his time, I called after him. “Hey, Spencer?”

He stopped in his tracks, turning back to me and trying to hide the fact he was still smiling. “What?” He asked as I glanced down at the two pins he wore so easily.

“Thanks.”

It wasn’t clear if he knew exactly what he was being thanked for, but the way he laughed and nodded told me he felt the same mess of relief, happiness, and comfort. I didn’t need to wonder anymore when it had stopped being scary. I was just happy it didn’t feel that way anymore.


End file.
